Cleveland clinched their first Camel Cup place for next season with an eight-wicket triumph over St. David's whose post-Eastern Counties slump continued with a third straight loss at Lord's.

Cleveland moved to 22 points along with Bay and in the process also improved their strike rate to 27.58 after losing just two wickets in reply to the St.

David's total.

Because of the rain the match did not start until 2.00, by which time the overs were reduced to 27 per team. St. David's had a good start with Reginald Pitcher (14) and Shea Pitcher (32) putting on 45 for the first wicket.

And though they moved onto 101 before the fourth wicket fell, St. David's lost wickets regularly after that as the overs started to run out. Number four batsman James Pace, the skipper, dominated the early scoring with his knock of 32, which included three fours and two sixes.

Spinner Hugh Murray was the best bowler for Cleveland with four for 23 off six overs while Del Hollis, who shared the new ball with Diallo Sharrieff, and Johnny Richardson got one wicket each.

After Wayne Smith was dismissed with just 16 on the board, a second-wicket stand of 61 between Grant Smith and Aaron Adams and an unbeaten stand of 48 between Adams and Allan Douglas laid the foundation for the Cleveland win, which came with 3.5 overs remaining.

Adams, who finished with 56 not out, hit three fours and three sixes, having given a chance to Sam Robinson off George Cannonier when on one, while Douglas finished with 19 not out. An unwell Smith made 16 before retiring hurt and Philpott scored 14.

Somerset 60 Bailey's Bay 62-3 Somerset crashed to their fourth straight loss after Bailey's Bay needed just 14 overs to reach their winning target at Sea Breeze Oval to clinch a Camel Cup place for next season.

Bailey's Bay will make certain of third place at least next weekend if they beat Social Club in their final match while Somerset must beat Somerset Bridge in their final outing if they are to avoid finishing last amongst the three teams from their parish. Already they are doomed to a finish in the bottom half of the standings and could end up with twice as many losses as wins, presently sporting a 5-9 record from 14 games.

Yesterday, Bay had them in immediate trouble after winning the toss and sending them in to bat.

Somerset, with a number of youngsters making up their team, lost the wicket of Kevin Saunders on the third ball of the first over before Vance Brown departed two overs later with just 10 runs on the board.

Two more wickets fell on 15 and 16 as Noel Gibbons, who shared the new ball with Clarkie Trott, grabbed two wickets in his fourth over to have the visitors reeling at 16 for four.

Captain Perry Maybury, who came to the wicket at number four, shared in a stand of 28 with James Swan for the fifth wicket -- the biggest stand of the innings -- before seamer Ricky Hill broke the stand with the first of his four wickets.

Hill, becoming a front-line bowler for Bay in the past few weeks, also got the wicket of Maybury for a top score of 32 on his way to four for 11 from 5.1 overs.

No other Somerset batsmen reached double figures as Trott claimed three for 26 and Gibbons two for 22, both from eight overs.

Maybury was also his team's best bowler, bowling Hill in the first over of the Bay innings and then trapping Charlie Marshall to make it 37 for three.

Glenn Smith finished with 18 not out while opener Chris Smith also scored 18 before he was second out when the score was 34. Maybury gave up 33 runs in his seven overs while Charles Swan, the other Somerset bowler used, took one for 27 off seven overs.

Willow Cuts 185-9 Somerset Bridge 96 Willow Cuts defeated neighbours Somerset Bridge by 89 runs at the Royal Naval field with Rodney Fubler scoring 44 runs and Vance Gilbert snatching three wickets for 24 runs.

The game was originally scheduled for Somerset Cricket Club and when the field was not prepared it was shifted to nearby Royal Naval field, which favoured the home team who train regularly on the astroturf wicket.

Willow Cuts started poorly when opener Anthony Fubler (eight) was dismissed with eight runs scored, but stability came when opener Dwayne Basden and skipper Dexter Basden put on 32 for the second wicket. Dwayne struck 28 and Dexter 21.

Although four more wickets fell before they reached the century mark, Rodney Fubler made sure that Willow Cuts would reach a respectable total by turning in one of his better batting performances of the season, the only misfortune being that he missed a half-century.

When he was finally dismissed, the score was 175 for eight with his departure coming just before the team's batting period had expired. Also among the runs were Richard Basden with 22, Joseph Matthews with 24 and Kevin Fubler with 21.

Sidney Simmons was the top bowler for Bridge with two wickets for two runs off just two overs. O'Neil Virgil had two for 16, David Jones two for 47 and Gary Crofton two for 54.

Somerset Bridge were never comfortable on the astroturf and against a spirited attack led by Gilbert there was always an uphill struggle after they lost the first three wickets for just 15 runs.

Opener Tony Cheeseman (28) joined in two good stands, the first with Brian Gibbons (10) and again with Sidney Simmons (14), but when Cheeseman was run out to make the score 76 for six the bowlers were allowed to get back on top.

Taking wickets in addition to Gilbert was Kevin Fubler with two for eight and Trevor Dickinson with one for 13.

Devonshire 160-9 Southampton 28-1 Southampton and Devonshire Rec. will both anxiously await a ruling from the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control after their important match at Southampton Oval fell victim to the rain just eight overs into the second innings.

The match, which would have eliminated one of the teams from the Camel Cup race, suffered from the outset when, because of an uncovered wicket from the previous day, the start of the match was delayed for 85 minutes. However, because the second team did not bat the minimum 20 overs to constitute a match run rate could not decide the outcome.

Rangers, winning the toss, sent Devonshire in to bat on a spongy wicket and in just under three overs the visitors managed to post 160 for nine from 39 overs. Opener Donald Norford was their high man with 29 as he and Albert Steede (13) put on 52 for the first wicket.

Mark Ray, with 26, was the next high man for Devonshire while Lloyd Morrison and Anthony Edwards, promoted to number six, both scored 15. There were 30 extras, while medium-pacer Michael Brangman led Rangers' attack with four for 43. Quinton Burch took two for 29.

After the Rec. innings ended at 3.19 p.m. it was not until 4.45 p.m. that the Rangers innings started, because of a heavy rain shower, which reduced their target to 124 from 30 overs. In the 40 minutes Rangers were at the crease, they scored 28 for the loss of Keith Wainwright who fell to John Ray for seven.

Three matches in the Premier Division were not played -- but not all were a victim of yesterday's rain.

The Hamilton Parish-PHC match was not played over a scheduling mix-up, which saw home team Parish not able to secure an alternative ground after both they and St. George's were scheduled to play at Wellington Oval, which they share.

Obviously St. George's, their landlords, took priority for their match against Police.

Social Club showed up at St. John's field with just six players for their match with Western Stars who won by default while the Flatts-Warwick match was called off by umpire Vincent Simons after he determined the pitch at Devonshire was unfit for play after being affected by the heavy weekend rain.

The knockout semifinals between St. George's and Southampton at Devonshire Rec. field and St. David's and Devonshire Rec. at Wellington Oval were both rained out on Saturday as was the annual Colts Cup Match between Somerset and St. George's at Somerset Cricket Club.

WENDELL SMITH -- On his way to 75 not out for new league champions St.

George's yesterday.